4 men convicted in Somali terror case

U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy said in a statement that she was gratified to see the jury rejected these arguments.

“The jury clearly did not accept defense claims that months of intercepted conversations about bullets, bombings and Jihad were actually conversations about their charitable efforts for orphans and schools,” she said.

“This case proves that our efforts to detect and disrupt terrorist financing — and prevent the violence that goes along with it — has paid off.”

The wiretapped conversations spanned a period from December 2007 to August 2008. In all, prosecutors said the amount of money raised for the fighters was about $8,500. In addition, they said that Moalin also provided another form of support when he allowed al-Shabaab fighters to use a home he owned in the capital of Mogadishu.

Much of the trial came down to debate about what was said on the wiretaps, by whom and what was left out.

Cole said that some of the conversations are conducted in a kind of code to obscure the meaning of what was being discussed. When discussing money transfers, for example, the defendants spoke about “bundles” or “stones” that he said was code for increments of money.

Many of the early conversations were recordings between Moalin and Aden Hashi Ayrow, a man who prosecutors said was a leader of al-Shabaab and a dedicated terrorist. On some recordings he is heard giving details of recent attacks and battles against Ethiopian forces or troops supporting the nascent Transitional Federal Government, which was trying to establish itself as an interim government in the war-torn country.

But the defense team said the government had built the entire case on a flawed premise: that Moalin was communicating with Ayrow. “They see al-Shabaab everywhere,” defense lawyer Joshua Dratel said in closing arguments.

Instead, the defense said another man, a police official who was opposed to al-Shabaab, was the person speaking on the phone. They located that man and took his testimony, along with several others, in a trip to Djibouti. The testimony was videotaped and played to jurors as part of the defense case.

Defense lawyers declined to comment after the verdict.

The defense team also attacked the government’s English translation of the tapes, contending it misinterpreted and botched key words and phrases. They provided their own translations of the conversations which were far more benign — and accurate, they said.

Ayrow was killed by a U.S. missile strike in May 2008. Prosecutors said the men continued to raise money over the next few months but by late summer were becoming more wary. In one conversation in July, Moalin indicated he was suspicious of being monitored and said it was time to “lay low.”